Witte, Otto

Member of the Reichstag, resistance fighter, state politician

Born: 19.03.1884 in Halberstadt

Died: 19.09.1963 in Wiesbaden

Not many Hessian politicians have had the honor of having a street named after them in Wiesbaden. This special honor was bestowed on Otto Witte, member of the Reichstag and President of the Hessian State Parliament, in Klarenthal in 1968.

Otto Witte trained as a gardener. After completing his apprenticeship, he attended horticultural college. He worked as a gardener in Charlottenburg and Zwickau. But he wanted to continue his education. He attended courses and lectures at the workers' training school in Leipzig, at the adult education centers in Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg and at the Hamburg Academy of Administration. He became interested in the interests of the working class at an early stage. He became involved in the trade union movement.

He joined the SPD as early as 1904. From 1909 to 1912, he was district leader of the German Gardeners' Association in Frankfurt. In 1912, he moved to Wiesbaden, where he took up the post of party secretary. From 1915 to 1918, he took part in the First World War as a front-line soldier. After his discharge from the army, he returned to Wiesbaden, where he was elected Chairman of the Soldiers' Council.

From 1919 to 1924, Witte was a city councillor in Wiesbaden and chairman of the SPD parliamentary group. In 1920, he was elected to the Nassau municipal parliament, the provincial parliament of Hesse-Nassau, for the SPD. In 1920, Witte became acting head of department at the provincial administration in Wiesbaden and in 1922, he became a state councillor and head of the state welfare office. As chairman of the "German Defense Command against Separatism", he opposed efforts to secede the Rhineland from the German Reich. As a result, the French occupying power expelled him for several months in March 1923 on the grounds that his party was waging the "fiercest fight against the occupation".

Between 1926 and 1933, he was the representative of the province of Hesse-Nassau in the Reichsrat. At the same time, he was a member of the Reichstag for constituency 19 (Hesse-Nassau). He had recognized the danger posed by the National Socialists early on. That is why he was one of the SPD MPs who rejected Hitler's Enabling Act in the Reichstag's roll-call vote on March 23, 1933.

After the National Socialists came to power, he lost his offices and parliamentary seats. As they feared his political influence in Wiesbaden, they expelled him to Hamburg in 1937. But even there he was not spared persecution. He was arrested by the Gestapo a total of 22 times. 12 house searches took place. He was imprisoned in the Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp from August 1944 as part of the "Gewitter" campaign. He was finally released from prison in April 1945.

After the Second World War, he returned to Wiesbaden. He immediately made himself available for political rehabilitation. The American occupation authorities appointed him a member of the State Advisory Committee. From July 15, 1946 to November 30, 1946, Witte was an elected member and President of the State Constitutional Consultative Assembly.

From December 1, 1946 to November 30, 1954, he was a member and President of the Hessian State Parliament. In his inaugural speech, he said: "I have the hope that we will succeed if we keep an eye on the big picture, the unifying factor."

He was also committed to building democracy in the federal government. From March 10, 1947 to September 30, 1949, he was a member of the Parliamentary Council of the State Council of the American zone. In 1949 and 1954, Otto Witte was a member of the Federal Assembly for the election of the Federal President. In 1953, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his great services.